Joe Biden, Organizer of Sanctions on Russia

The U.S. president is finally finding the way back to his old form: The committed trans-Atlanticist is confidently standing up to Vladimir Putin.

Once again, he has thrown the contrast into sharp relief. Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. president, openly admired his Russian counterpart. Trump has now made clear in a radio interview, in a simply spectacular way, what would likely be different if he were still in sitting at the desk in the Oval Office instead of Joe Biden.

According to Trump, it was “genius” how Vladimir Putin took action in the separatist areas of Eastern Ukraine. “Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. I said, ‘how smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper.” Such a strong peace force, there were more tanks than he has ever seen. They could use that on the southern border, the former president said, praising Putin only to take a swipe at his successor moments later. “And you know what the response was from Biden? Trump said. “There was no response. They didn’t have one for that.”

So far, so bizarre. In reality, Biden is currently acting like a man who pretty much knows exactly what he is doing. As deeply disenchanted as he was by the tug-of-war over his practically failed major domestic reform projects, as much as he humiliated himself with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the struggle with the Kremlin is strengthening his profile. Strictly speaking, it is a familiar profile. It is the profile of a politician who is experienced abroad and whose specialty is East-West relations — or at least was for a long time, before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the much touted pivot to East Asia, incrementally moved U.S.-Russia relations to the sidelines in Washington.

Biden in His Element

This is his strong suit. Biden, who led the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations before Barack Obama, a political greenhorn with respect to international politics, chose Biden as his running mate because of Biden’s global network of contacts, is not just regarded as a committed trans-Atlanticist. If you consider that the U.S. wants to concentrate even more on the Indo-Pacific and the race with China in the future, Biden may perhaps be the last committed trans-Atlanticist to reside in the White House.

Now, it isn’t remotely the case that his instincts have always been right. As a senator, he allowed himself to make some disastrous misjudgments. He opposed the deployment of troops in the Gulf to expel Saddam Hussein’s soldiers from occupied Kuwait, while he later supported the Iraq invasion based on false intelligence about alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Robert Gates, a realpolitik veteran who served both as secretary of defense to both George W. Bush and Obama summarized thisin his 2014 memoirs. Bates said that Biden was wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades. Admittedly, Gates is a Republican, so such an attack is hardly free of partisan politics. In any case, it is now irrelevant. What counts today is the contrast to Trump.

Necessary Attention to Detail

Even before he moved into the White House, Trump called NATO obsolete and plainly abused several allies during his term in office, especially Germany. Biden, on the other hand, not only wholeheartedly recognizes the Atlantic pact, he also pays necessary attention to details to prevent any rifts based on different interests, something that Russia could exploit. Biden is the chief organizer of the Western alliance.

Then there is still the 79-year-old president’s tendency to get tangled up with words from time to time, or to divulge things in public that ought to be classified. As recently as a few weeks ago, he spoke of a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine, in which case “we end up having a fight about what to do and not do.”

There is no longer a sense that there is rhetoric that could cause harm. “Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?” Biden asked on Feb. 22, when he announced the first U.S. sanctions. It seems like he has found his way back to assuredness in a war of nerves, a confidence he seemed to be missing in more peaceful times.

Support from Bernie Sanders

Incidentally, he has also united his own ranks in the Democratic Party, which admittedly may have been the result of Putin’s actions rather than what Biden has said. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988 for his honeymoon, is also arguing for hard sanctions on Putin and on “[his oligarchy where we should freeze] access to the billions of dollars that Putin and his oligarch cronies have stashed in European and American banks.” Strictly speaking, Sanders is admittedly not a member of the Democratic Party, but he is the symbolic figure for the party’s left wing. In American discourse, it carries weight if he also says that Putin tragically appears to reject a diplomatic solution. On the other hand, members of Congress are calling on the White House to work toward the final end of Nord Stream 2 in Berlin instead of a temporary break.

At the moment, it doesn’t look as though Biden will follow the hard-liners. Apparently, he is banking on a step-by-step policy that always leaves doors open to retreat. Commentators liken him to a man who reaches for a small hammer first, while a bigger one is already clearly visible on the table. Daleep Singh, the deputy to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, also attempted a metaphor with journalists that ended up with a pretty crooked image. He talked about the sanctions that stood for “the sharp edge” of pain that they could inflict on Russia.